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The knot was torn in a long-standing feud with one of the richest entrepreneurial families in Germany.

Almost exactly three years after the former Tengelmann boss Karl-Erivan Haub disappeared without a trace, the decisive tribes of the Haub family came to an agreement.

According to a letter of intent signed on Monday, today's Tengelmann boss Christian Haub will take over the shares from Karl-Erivan's wife and their children.

"It has been a long way that the families have had to travel since the long-time CEO Karl-Erivan Haub went missing," the lawyers on both sides, Markus Binz and Peter Gauweiler, are quoted as saying in a joint statement.

"We conducted very tough negotiations, which were ultimately based on fairness and increased mutual understanding," it says in a conciliatory manner.

Now everything should go very quickly.

The plan is to certify and execute the agreed share purchase in May.

Christian Haub (57), a brother of Karl-Erivan Haub, will in future control 68.67 percent of the shares in the group after the agreement.

In addition, the younger brother Georg Haub is involved with the remaining shares.

Haub's trail is lost at the mountain station

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Since none of the three family lines had a majority so far, there had been a power struggle, which was exacerbated by the prospect of the due date of the German and American inheritance tax after the death of the former boss was declared.

The future two-thirds majority now ensures Christian Haub extensive operational and personal design options.

The signing of the letter of intent proves "that one can come to an agreement even after lengthy disputes, provided that both sides have the will and the creative power", according to the press release from Gauweiler and Binz.

The entrepreneurial family assumes that the missing Karl-Erivan Haub had a fatal accident during a ski tour on the Klein Matterhorn near Zermatt on April 7, 2018.

Contrary to his habit, Haub, who was considered an experienced skier, went alone and with light equipment to a mountain station at an altitude of 3820 meters that Saturday morning.

From there, slopes lead to both Switzerland and Italy.

Haub's trail is lost at the mountain station.

Search operations with helicopters and mountain rescuers, which lasted for days, remained fruitless.

Use of detectives

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Even years after the incident in the Alps, speculations about the fate of the entrepreneur have not died down.

Reliable evidence for one or the other version has not yet emerged.

The Tengelmann family is one of the richest clans in Germany, with assets estimated at at least three billion euros.

These include the textile discounter Kik and the DIY chain Obi, which has more than 650 stores in Europe.

In addition, there are extensive real estate assets in residential and commercial buildings, which the subsidiary Trei Real Estate controls.

Tengelmann also acts as an investor for young companies.

Years ago, one of the most successful participations in this area was Zalando.

According to its own information, the group achieved a total of around 8.1 billion euros in sales in 2019.